Forever
by TheWolfHourx
Summary: "Periods punctuated, 'The End' was typed, and books closed. But the tale of the Russo siblings would live on… Forever." My tribute to Wizard's, you will be missed. Jalex or non-Jalex, either way works.


**Title: **Forever

**Rating: **K+, for a few not-so-kiddy words.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Wizards of Waverly Place or any of the characters. I also don't own anything from Disney. I also don't own Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. I also don't own the song "Fix You" by Coldplay. Everything belongs to their rightful owners. No copyright is intended!

"_Tears stream down your face_

_When you lose something you cannot replace_

_Tears stream down your face_

_And I…will try to fix you…"_

Fix You- Coldplay

~:~

_She was scared._

_No, terrified really. She just needed to reach an inch closer. Needed to touch it. Needed to become something, to make something of herself. To feel the all too familiar powerful surge through her numb veins. _

_But she was scared. And that's what held her back. That's what held her in place from moving her fingers even a half of an inch forward. She shouldn't be the one to grab this though. It should be Justin or even Max. Not her. She didn't deserve it._

_She always screwed up, went against the rules. How did she deserve something like this? It just didn't add up in her head._

_The glowing ball of light just sits there, however. Sparkles and gleams. It shows of a better life. A life full of power, magic, and possibility. It sits there taunting her. It doesn't move. It beckons to her. Tells her to move. Tells her if she doesn't try she won't get this chance _ever again_. _

_But it doesn't seem to understand that she _can't move_. Her shaking fingers are stretched towards it, but they won't touch the beautiful orb of light. They won't go any further because they haven't been instructed to do so. She's confused, and everything is going too fast and too slow all at the same time. _

_She turns her head half a centimeter to the side to see if any of her brothers have caught up to her. But they haven't. It's just her and…_life_ wrapped in a wonderful orange ball. She can feel that it's now or never. She has a decision to make. _

_Take it. Or turn around and never look back. And it's so _unfair_. She just wants more time. More time to make her choice. If she becomes the Family Wizard, everything that she's worked for has finally paid off. Her brothers though, especially Justin, would be devastated. But she would have won and it would fair. But it's so_ unfair_. _

_She silently pleads with the light to give her a few more precious minutes. Minutes she needs but knows it won't grant her. If she left and never looked back, Justin would win. She knows it. Max is probably still trying to remember what he ate for breakfast. But Justin? Justin remembers everything he ever learned about wizardry. It's his _life_. It's not her life. _

_His life since the day he was eight and found out about magic has always been about magic. He's great, he'll win. He'll be the Family Wizard._

_No._

_Here she is. Staring at the face of possibility. Not him. And sometime, long ago, this would fill her with so much glee, and make her want to bag and brag on him every day about how she won and not him. But something in her has changed. Something in her is saying this isn't how it should be. _

_So she sits there staring at the orange globe. And it stares right back at her. Gleaming and sparkling. Telling her to make a move. It's now or never._

_And so she does. She forces herself to move. Makes her mind connect to her body. And she moves that half an inch forward. Touches the gleaming, beautiful ball, and watches as it connects with her skin. Feels the magic surging through her veins just like that day back in Puerto Rico. And she feels the possibilities. _

_This isn't right though…Justin or even Max should have won. Not her. She doesn't deserve this…_

She groans. Every muscle in her body screaming at her because of the position she's in. Her brain still hasn't caught up with her body though, and it makes her arms and legs feel like a million tons. She licks her lips and flutters her eyes open. She feels sick and topsy-turvy, and of course this is when her body decides to wake up, giving her that feeling in her legs like a thousand angry bees buzzing inside of her.

Her eyes are still glazed over and everything so hard to see. Hard to understand. She moves her hand up to her forehead and groans feeling a headache coming on. She groans again as she tries to lift her head up. But her head won't budge.

Oh yeah. The book of spells. She's laying on it.

She pressed her hand to the page and moves her head up with a little yank. The paper tears itself away from her skin leaving her right side of her face all red and irritated.

Sighing she looks down at the book. She's been studying potions all night for The Wizard Competition since she heard there might be potion making in The Competition.

She's never studied a day in her life before last night. Never. That's how important The Competition is to her…The Competition.

The dream…

Or rather nightmare. She remembers how it was too much to handle. Something she has been preparing for her whole life and all she had to do was reach out her fingers out and take it? Just like that? It would all end?

She tries to remember if that's how she felt in Puerto Rico. The sudden end to everything that her life has revolved around. But she can't. All she can recall is a since of urgency to win. Win. Win. Win. She had to win. To save her family.

She still has to win. Or does she? Can she just turn around and leave? Turning her back on everything she ever learned as a kid?

She feels the bile running up her throat. She couldn't do that. She's too much of a _coward. _Too scared to see the disappointment on her family's faces. She wished she was normal as she has wished a million times before. Wished she didn't have to worry about something as _important_ as the Family Wizard Competition for once in her very short life. But it was too important. Yet in her dream it was so _easy. _Simple. _Unimportant._ She could have given up. That would have been difficult though. Impossible even.

Even in her dream she was too _coward_ to give up.

The gleaming orb was hers though. But it wasn't. She didn't deserve it. Justin or even Max did. Not her.

She rubbed her head ready to give up and just wing it. Sleep off all her frustrations. Until she heard someone walking into the lair humming to themselves. Carefree. While here she was shitting herself over The Competition. She looked down at her shoes not even bothering to stand up out of her chair she has been sitting in all night, which has caused her butt to go beyond numb. And of course this certain person spots her, all alone in the lair.

"Alex?" She hears his shoes shuffle towards her. She sighed and looked up. He looks shocked to find her down her at such an early time in the morning. "Studying?" He stopped in front of the desk that she had used to study on. Putting both hands on the desk he leaned forward and observed what she had done so far. "Taking notes?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes, it's a miracle! Ugh, now can you go?" She looked up at him and saw him crack a small smile at her. His eyes where lighting up and he had his usual "I'm-so blackmailing-you-for-this-later-face" that he seemed to learn from her and used it for months on end now. His lips quivered and he ended up busting out laughing. Holding onto his sides to make an act out of how hilariously absurd this was to him.

Alex rolled her eyes again. Did he really not get how serious everything was now? Everything was going to change! And here he was acting like there was not a care in the world. He ran a finger under his eye like he had been crying about how funny it was. "That's," He paused to laugh some more. "Rich." He let out another round of chuckles.

Alex felt her blood boil, her face turning cherry red. She wasn't mad she just didn't let herself get any air in her lungs. She knew if she spoke or drew in a breath…she might just cry of jealousy. Of how easy everything was for Justin. He hasn't studied much as far as she can tell, but has boasted to anyone and everyone how easy it's going to be to win The Family Wizard Competition.

While she was stuck studying. Stuck being scared. She was terrified. But not him.

Alex went against her own wishes and drew in a breath of air. It came out more as a choked sob. And Justin caught it.

He immediately stopped laughing and gave her a questioning look. "Alex? Are you ok?"

Alex shook her head 'no', and drew her lips in a tight line. Not letting herself speak.

"Hey…you know you can tell me if something's wrong…" Justin crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a scrutinizing gaze.

Alex looked up in his face and she felt so broken. So worn down. And she just didn't _care _anymore. She looked up into his piercing gaze. Making her voice become a tiny whisper, she said, "I'm scared Justin."

She noticed Justin soften his gaze to her and walked around the desk to her. When he was standing right next to her he bent down and steadied himself by holding onto her arm. "Of the Wizard Competition?" He whispered it back to her, and she could only nod and look down at him into his wonderful grey-blue eyes that reminded her sometimes of the autumn sky. Unlike her and Max's that reminded her of poop.

"I'm scared too." He looked down quickly, and then let himself look back up at her. And she saw the fear in his eyes. Something she hadn't noticed before when he was boasting and bragging. Sucking up to their parents, Professor Crumbs, and Tootie Tootie. But here he was sharing his fears with her and she didn't feel so alone anymore.

Alex flickered her eyes over his face to make sure he was telling the truth. "What are you scared for?" She whispered down to him. "You'll win."

She heard him swallow and looked anywhere but her face. He let a smile go over his features and stood up. He sat down on the desk and let his eyes find hers. "Everything," he let out. "If I lose, I lose everything I worked so hard to become. And if I win…I could lose my family, just like Dad, Kelbo, and Meagan did."

Alex felt the same way. And she felt like a little weight was off her shoulders from this confession. She wasn't so alone anymore.

She opened her mouth to comfort him, or agree with him…something, but he cut her off. "Alex. No matter what happens the day of The Wizard Competition, just know I'll always be there. I'll be there to bail you out or just to talk to." He swallowed down a lump in his throat and continued. "You know...I haven't been a very good brother to you the past few months. But I'm here now. And I have your back."

"Thanks Justin." Alex sighed and looked down at her feet. "But I'm still scared. It's all going to end and that's going to be that. The end. Case closed. And-and…I'm just so scared." She looked back up to his face.

He thought about what she said for a moment and then let a small smile grace his lips. "It's you and me…we'll get through it together. How can we not?" He smiled at her and lightly tapped his foot against hers.

She let out a little laugh remembering when he said that to her in Puerto Rico. She rested her head on his knee and then smiled and suddenly she got it. It all clicked. It made sense.

She stood up, ignoring the pain in her aching muscles from the swift movement, and faced him. "I get it Justin. It all makes sense now."

He gave her a questioning look and asked, "What makes sense?"

She smiled at him and for the first time in _months_ it reaches her eyes. "It's not about the Family Wizard Competition that's oh-so-important. It's not about that stupid little glowing orb. Or-or the fact that we could lose our magic forever." She takes a deep breath and stares right into his questioning gaze. "It's about family. It's about little moments like these, where we open up to each other. It's about all the _good _memories. It's about all the _possibilities _for our future as a family."

He smiles back at her and reaches one arm towards her to move her into a hug. "You're right Alex." She smiles into the hug and she rests her head against his shoulder. "I think we'll be fine."

She releases her grasp on him and sits down next to him on the desk putting her head on his shoulder again. "Yeah, 'cause it's you and me…how can we not?" She pushes him lightly with her shoulder in a joking manner.

She hears him laugh and she lets out a little laugh herself.

As they sat there thinking about all the hardships they've been through, all the times they've almost disappeared from each other's lives. They shared one last look. Ready to face whatever the future brings for them. Because maybe, just maybe, she did deserve to win…

Periods punctuated, 'The End' was typed, and books closed. But the tale of the Russo siblings would live on…

Forever.

**~The Russo's will be missed...Forever~**

**A/N: **I kind of grew up with the Russo kids and it will be a tear felt good bye when we all see them on screen together one last time. Writing this brought a couple tears to my eyes, but fear not my friends they will live on. I will continue to write about them till I have no more thoughts left up there for them in my head. I will sincerely miss the Russos...I don't know what else to say but thank you. Thank you everyone on Wizards of Waverly Place who showed us a different kind of magic. Thank you for inspiring me to write and have the courage to actually put pen to paper. And thanks to all of you. Who took the time to read, review, favorite and, alert my stories. As long as we continue to hold on to Wizard's they won't die. In fact for me...they will live on...**Forever**.

**~Thank You~**

**(Thanks also to my beta reader JazzyKanani)**


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